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Interview follows Moran’s meetings in Moscow, Oslo and Helsinki

Jul152018

KANSAS CITY – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) tonight joined a special edition of Fox News’ ‘Special Report’ where he discussed his expectations for the Trump-Putin Summit based on his meetings in Moscow, Oslo and Helsinki last week.

Sen. Moran (0:52):“I do believe the two president’s meeting is a good thing. But I think now President Trump with the indictments that were just recently announced has the ability to demonstrate to the Russians that interfering in our elections was real - confirmed by a series of indictments. I would expect the conversation to be about the nature of our relationship and if the Russians want it to be improved we need to have no more interference in our elections in 2018 or 2020 and a recognition that Crimea and Ukraine are important to us and the World and a desire to see that we have a plan in Syria that brings this bloodbath to an end. I think the most important thing is that we will see the leaders sitting down trying to figure out if there is a path forward on any of them.”

Sen. Moran (2:05):“We had a very useful visit… and a message to President Trump is that Russian media and government officials described our visit totally different than it was. I don’t believe the Russians when they say they didn’t interfere in our elections. Americans should not believe Russians when they describe the meetings we had as inconsequential, as easy, as nothing was presented to the Russians that was any kind of threat – not in a military sense – but a threat in whether or not we are going to have better relations.”

Sen. Moran: (4:23):“I don’t know what the president will say about sanctions but the message we delivered as members of Congress, as the United States Senate, in Russia is, your behavior has to change before those sanctions will be lifted and a significant portion of those sanctions can only be lifted by Congressional action, not just by the President alone. The thing I would add to that list, it’d be great if those indicted individuals were extradited to the United States, but the thing I would also add to the list is, use this as an opportunity to tell to the Russians that the European-American alliance is strong and use this as an opportunity to reassure NATO that the United States and NATO are aligned in our efforts to hold back Russian aggression coming in the direction of Europe. We have spent, FY2019, the budget that we are talking about in Congress right now, appropriates $6.5 billion dollars and we have 34,000 troops in Europe under the European command with other soldiers and marines rotating in and out – navy personnel as well – designed to reassure our allies that we are with them because of Russian efforts to pull us apart. I hope the president reassures Europeans that we are with them, and I hope he makes that clear to Putin, that this is an alliance that works in the best interest – not just of Europe – but in the best interest of the security and future of the United States of America.”